TNA Impact Wrestling taping
Orlando, Fla.
Report by Dot Net reader Matthew Nall

Tonight was the first television taping since the Hardcore Justice pay-per-view the night before. The crowd was surprising full with actual TNA fans and just a few "seat fillers" from the park. The crowd tonight also seemed to be much more into the show than the crowd last night for Hardcore Justice.

Dark Match

1. Jerry Lynn beat Jason Siphon. Lynn won via a nice flying cross body from the top rope. This is the first I’ve seen of Siphon, my guess is that this was a workout match for the TNA brass, and since Lynn was in town for that awful RVD angle last night; he was asked to have a match with this kid.

Jason Syphon was not awe inspiring, but impressive. He is small in stature, but with a nice build and large upper body. He worked the match hard and didn’t seem to be intimidated with Lynn. His timing was good and he seemed to know how and when to work the crowd. I assume he is going to be put into the X Division as a heel. He plays more of an angry heel compared to Austin Aries' cocky persona and I think will be a good addition to the X-division in the coming months.

TNA Impact Taping

Immortal opens the show by coming to the ring. Abyss, Mr. Anderson, Steiner, Bully Ray, and Gunner. The segment starts with Bully Ray calling out Abyss and telling him he’s on thin ice. Then Bully turns to Anderson and gives him props for the hard fought match they had at Hardcore Justice and says that he sees now why Anderson is and should be in Immortal. He then says that the feud is over and goes to shake hands with Anderson.

Anderson then punches Bully Ray and starts to drive him down into the corner, as the other members of Immortal try to break it up, Anderson also attacks them; until Immortal gang jumps him and eventually hold him up for Bully to hit Anderson with his chain wallet. At this time, security (former wrestlers) comes down and gets Immortal out of the ring. Anderson is then put in a neck brace and wheeled out on a stretcher as the crowd chants "Anderson, Anderson."

My Take: This was a good segment because it got Anderson out of Immortal. The fans didn’t really buy that he would or did join Immortal and I think this was the company backing out of that mistake. The injury seemed obviously part of the Angle.

1. Mickie James beat Madison Rayne. This was a short match, it ended when Mickie James took Madison's Tiara and mimics Rayne and then uses Madison's angry charge against her for the win.

My Take: It was a decent match. Madison Rayne is to small and weak to ever be a serious main event Knockout, but I love her heel character and she plays to the crowd better than any other Knockout. She could have a long career of losing to women who just lost the title. Mickie had a good match. She seems more comfortable against opponents who are smaller than her, but she got a lot of heat from the crowd and is a fan favorite.

2. Brian Kendrick beat Robbie E (w/Cookie). Kendrick is loved by the TNA fans and gets great heat as he comes to the ring. Robbie and Cookie have an amusing back and forth thrughout the match, which culminates with Cookie trying to spray Kendrick with hairspray. He ducks and Robbie gets it, which Kendrick turns into the victory.

My Take: Kendrick is awkward in the ring. He has some amazing moves, but he also can be super boring to watch. His best skill is getting beaten up as he is a great seller. His baby face character almost comes across as a moron the way he sways and bobbles around. As for Robbie, he is talented in the ring, I don’t love his character, but he plays it very well.

They announced Earl Hebner as the senior official. The crowd was a split reaction.

I know this is not news, but I want to use this to push a problem I have with the officials in TNA. I know Earl Hebner is a legend and was the referee for more big matches than I can count, but the officials in TNA don’t help the product at all. Hebner's son is way to worried about getting in the spotlight and seems to be officiating every time there is a ref bump and is way to quick to get in and manhandle the talent. I also noticed Earl Hebner argues and yells at the wrestlers, which you could say he has earned that right, but at the core the referees are supposed to small skinny guys who count to three and make the wrestlers in the ring look larger than life. TNA would be wise to get some guys who can accomplish this.

3. Beer Money defeated Devon & The Pope, and AJ Styles & Rob Van Dam in a three-way Bound For Glory Series match. This was a three-way tag Bound for Glory Match, although they didn’t announce the scoring, so I don’t know if the winning team got points or just the winner wrestler. The match was fast paced and exciting. Several double team moves and a great top rope move by AJ Styles. The match ended when Devon (going for Roode) hit Pope with a top rope move. Roode pinned Pope. After the match, Pope and Devon seemed to have a new found respect for each other and leave the area together.

My Take: So much for the Bound for Glory being a fair and balanced tournament (more on this in the main event!). The one thing this match did do was set up Devon and Pope as a tag team. This is good for Devon as I feel his days were numbered as a singles wrestler. You can only shoulder block and body slam so much in a one-on-one match. I think Pope would be a great fit with him and I see them becoming a really good tag team in TNA should the angle go that way.

Kurt Angle comes out with a chair and basically says he had to take Sting out with the chair because an "informant" told him that Dixie Carter knew about Jeff and Karen, and lied to him about everything. Kurt says his goal is to see that Dixie never gets her company back.

As he leaves the ring, Sting is waiting on the ramp with a baseball bat, which he uses to beat on the chair Angle has and knock it out of his hand. As Sting is getting ready to hit Angle with the bat, Hogan attacks from behind and takes out Sting. Angle then gets back on the mic to say that Hogan is his informant. Hogan then continues to beat Sting in the ring and the segment ends. All the while, Hogan gets nothing but love from the live audience.

My Take- TNA has some great talent, but it’s not in their writing department. This was a confusing and not so believable heel turn for Angle. In fact at one point So Cal Val had to get the "Angle Sucks" chant started. To be honest, this whole Immortal and Dixie Carter thing just doesn’t do it for me at all. If she’s the one that devised bringing in Bischoff and doing this whole thing; I don’t want her to get the company back anyway. Angle still has some matches left in him, and people love Sting, but he proved last night he is just getting old and the pace of the main event at Hardcore Justice proved it.

The overriding feeling of this segment is that Hogan is still wildly popular! The crowd went nuts for him. I don’t understand who’s brilliant idea it was to make him a heel!! He tries so hard to get booed, but can’t, and after a reality show and all the interviews as Terry, we all know he’s a good guy and so we don’t buy the heel thing at all. I say if your going to pay all the money for Hogan (which I’m sure it does mean ratings) why not get the Hulkster and all the Hulkamaniacs that come with his baby face character.

It’s like paying a bunch of money for John Mayer to play your wedding, then when he shows up your like, no just play guitar, we don’t need you to sing. How about Dixie hires Hogan to get the company back and since he is to broken to wrestle, he has to recruit all the young babyfaces to help him take down Immortal. Then you have a Hogan vs. Bischoff or even better Hogan vs. Flair thing going. Now wouldn’t that be more fun to watch. But, of course, that ship has sailed and we are stuck cheering for the bad guy. Oh yeah, Angle’s a heel now, but they didn’t say if he joined Immortal.

4. Tara and Miss Tessmacher beat Jackie and ODB. Jackie and ODB spent most of the match stoping each other from breaking the rules. All 4 women were impressive and seemed to have good chemistry. The match ended when Jackie and ODB were distraught from breaking a rule and Tessmacher used the distraction to get the win.

My Take: Jackie and Tara are both strong wrestlers and Tessmacher looks better in wrestling tights than any wrestler ever has. I am really impressed with ODB though. She is probably more athletic than all the other women in the ring and the strongest. At one point in the match, she manhandles Tara with pure power. She anticipates well and embraces her ugly badass character. She is a force.

Video Promo for Mr. Spectacular. He is a Mr. Perfect/Miz style heel that thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. X Division?

Powell's POV: I assume this is "Mr. Pectacular" Jessie Godderz of "Big Brother" fame.

Double J and Karen come to the ring wearing Mexican garb and sporting the Mexican title. Double J gets constant "you suck" chants from the crowd. He explains he is the king of Mexico and you know what, you’ll see this on TV, it’s not worth recapping.

My Take: Stupid Jeff Jarrett is the Brendan Fraser of wrestling in that I don’t know how he keeps getting work! The segment was dumb, probably racist, and I would have rather seen two jobbers have a match. The only thing that could have saved it was Double J attacks two "gardeners" he brought to the ring, and Hector Guerrero gets up from his broadcast booth and come to their rescue, but of course Jeff gets out of the ring as he is too big a star in his own mind to actually have Guerrero come in the ring and give him a beat down, which would have made the segment somewhat palatable.

5. Crimson defeated Gunner, Bully Ray, and Scott Steiner in a four-way Bound For Glory Series match. The match started with Bully Ray and Crimson in the ring. Before they touch, Bully tags in Gunner. Crimson beats on Gunner, then Bully is tagged in again, but tags in Steiner before he locks up with Crimson. Crimson pinned Gunner without Bully ever getting involved in the match.

My Take: This, as with the earlier BFG Series match, just takes some of the wind out of the tournaments sails as we all know now that TNA will manipulate the tourney to have it fit in their story rather than drive their stories as it should. It was not a great main event. It would have been a good match halfway up the card. I was glad TNA kept Crimson's unbeaten streak alive. It would have been a cheap way for him to lose and I hope they have better plans for it than that. Speaking of Crimson, he is still really green, but he has a super bright future. He sells well, he also has great flow and timing and he uses the situation he is given to perform a move where I feel much of TNA try too hard to set up a situation for a move they want to do. Crimson will be a Heavyweight Champ in the next year or two.

TNA Xplosion Taping

1. Alex Shelley defeated Douglas Williams. Shelley won by pinfall. Maybe the match of the night. It was kind of a work the crowd match, which was weird since it was last on the card, but obviously not for the show it will air on. The match had some good mat wrestling and some high flying moves.

My Take: Douglas Williams is a true pro. He sells well and has a very large bag of moves he can break out at any time. I could see the combination of him and Magnus being the only real competition as far as in ring ability to challenge Beer Money. Alex Shelley does some good things, but much like Brian Kendrick is he not inventive enough for me and can sometimes take what seems like hours between moves where he seems to be thinking not about the moment he is in, but about how to set up for hitting one of his signature crowd pleasers. He needs to stop winking at the crowd and get his head in the game. He has the talent, but may be better off as a tag team partner.

Questions, Comments, Disagreement, feel free to write even though I probably won’t write back: kyaudioguy@me.com

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